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Microsoft [to patent] Verb Conjugation
streepje writes "Here [to be] the latest egregious patent application. Microsoft [to be] [to apply] for a patent for [to conjugate] verbs. Future postings [to look] like this."
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Not even the US government is stupid enough to give M$ a patent for this.
It's embarassing to be associated with this kind of crap, even just reading it. Sure, the patent system is broke. Sure, Microsoft's business ethics have historically been just a hair above the mafia's.
/. editors didn't see it because it was so similar to submissions made in complete earnest.
/., but a more accurate appraisal is that it's a continuation of the decline. WTF are editors for, if not to ensure a high standard? If we want mindless mob mentality, we'll go to digg. What value add is there in slashdot's editorial structure if the lowest of the low makes it to the front page, with apparently no fact checking or even the weakest attempt at keeping things realistic?
But it's somewhere between bizarre and pathetic to distort facts so severely to justify moral outrage. Not a word of the topic is actually true. Maybe the original submission was meant as a joke, but our illustrious
What's next? Facetious "news" of Microsoft engaging in genocide? There's certainly room for that kind of zealotry in the world. I wish I could say that this was a new low for
-b
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
I don't know where the idea came from that the USPTO was supposed to vette and validate every single boneheaded thing that came through the door, but it's not. Their job is to provide a cursory review to ensure that the patent is valid in the sense that it is something that can be patented and has not already been patented. If there are other extenuating circumstances that invalidate an otherwise valid patent, lawyers can be consulted to invalidate the patent, at which point the person who tried patenting the thing to begin with is left holding losses for the application and processing fees and legal fees.
To put it another way, it is NOT the USPTO's job to do the legwork for every company that applies for a patent. If they want to waste their money patenting something that is going to be overturned because they didn't do any research, so be it.
Response to inevitable "but they can just bludgeon small businesses to death with endless legal costs" stammering: that's a whole other problem to solve and has precious little to do with this.